She is clothed with strength and dignity,and she laughs without fear of the future

– Proverbs 31:25 (NLT)

I’m sure many of you have heard this before, or have seen it on a poster or somewhere online. I was playing around with my Over app on my iPhone trying to do just that (create a cute image with one of my favorite verses – for Instagram, of course!), so I opened up my Bible and started reading Proverbs 31, “The Sayings of King Lemuel…which his Mother taught him”

Let me share the whole passage with you starting at 31:10:

A Wife of Noble Character

10 Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?She is more precious than rubies.11 Her husband can trust her,and she will greatly enrich his life.12 She brings him good, not harm,all the days of her life.

13 She finds wool and flaxand busily spins it.14 She is like a merchant’s ship,bringing her food from afar.15 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her householdand plan the day’s work for her servant girls.

16 She goes to inspect a field and buys it;with her earnings she plants a vineyard.17 She is energetic and strong,a hard worker.18 She makes sure her dealings are profitable;her lamp burns late into the night.

19 Her hands are busy spinning thread,her fingers twisting fiber.20 She extends a helping hand to the poorand opens her arms to the needy.21 She has no fear of winter for her household,for everyone has warm clothes.

22 She makes her own bedspreads.She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.23 Her husband is well known at the city gates,where he sits with the other civic leaders.24 She makes belted linen garmentsand sashes to sell to the merchants.

25She is clothed with strength and dignity,and she laughs without fear of the future.26 When she speaks, her words are wise,and she gives instructions with kindness.27 She carefully watches everything in her householdand suffers nothing from laziness.

28 Her children stand and bless her.Her husband praises her:29 “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,but you surpass them all!”

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.31 Reward her for all she has done.Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

How beautiful is that?! Now you know where that famous verse comes from.

As a Wife and a Mother this passage is breathtaking — and it speaks to me even more as a Maker.. not that I’m sitting here spinning wool or anything, but it is truly inspiring. Not sure my husband sees me exactly this way but hey, I try. #wifegoals

I’ve put together a few new products in my Stickelberry Shop on Zazzle with Proverbs 31:25 on them to help inspire us. May we all raise our standard a bit higher and be as noble as we can today and everyday.

Here we are, back in the season, scooping up all of the clothes, gear and supplies for our offspring to head back in to the classroom to grow and learn all the things.

You know the last thing your kid wants is the same “_______” as someone else, so wouldn’t it be great to surprise them with some personalized coolness and unique duds that no one else will have? Zazzle can make this happen for us, friends!

AND you can get 30% off right now through Sunday 8/21 using code ZBIGDEALFORU at checkout!

The Backpack

First off, I LOVE these bags from Zazzle – they are lightweight, easy to clean and large enough to hold plenty.

I totally dig these for my littles AND for myself, because hello – these are awesome for the beach, park, gym, wherever. They would make a great sports bag too!

Check out my newest backpack designs here, or peruse the amazing Zazzle gallery of other unique backpack designs. They even have popular Game, Movie and Comic characters for the little fans out there.

The Lunchbox

Next on my list for my dudes was a new lunchbox. Again, I wanted something totally unique for them and I hit the jackpot with these Yubo lunchboxes. They are totally customize-able and come in hundreds of designs!

What I like the most about these is the fact that the faceplates COME OFF – so if you want a new design, you can just order new plates instead of a whole new lunchbox. Think about the possibilities — different plates for different seasons, or each new school year, etc. They come in other colors besides blue, too! It’s all washable, AND it COMES WITH the containers AND the icepack! So there you go — everything you need to pack your child’s lunch (or yours for that matter, I may indeed make one for myself). You can find my designs here, or checkout all the cool lunchboxes that Zazzle has to offer here.

Shirts

Let’s talk clothes. Shirts in particular. Kids love shirts with words. Funny sayings, things that express who they are and what they are into… I happen to know a lot of kids that are in to sports. Like, REALLY in to sports. ALL THEY DO is eat, sleep, and play their sports. Enough said. Check out my collection of back to school shirts here (more to come, I’m adding new designs daily!), or peruse the entire gallery of SO MANY awesome and unique shirts on Zazzle.

Supplies

Have I mentioned that I love all things paper. I love love LOVE notebooks in particular – anything I can write or doodle in makes me SO happy. Get your child writing with these custom notebooks and journals! Great for taking notes, journaling, keeping scores… you name it. Check out my favorites here or view the entire collection that Zazzle has to offer!

If you have an avid list maker, artist or poet on your hands, these pocket journals are THE BEST! You can customize the outside and choose what type of paper is on the inside: blank, lined, grid or checklist.

I love the idea of customized binders – nowadays the older kids need one for every subject so why not provide them with super cool subject binders.

You can put any text on them, so you could put their name or initials, the class the binder is for, etc., and they come in 1″, 1.5″ and 2″ sizes. You can find my designs here, or the entire gallery here. You can get popular characters like Superman, Batman and all of your favorite Disney friends!

Tech

Don’t forget phone and tablet cases – there are so many beautiful and customize-able designs available on Zazzle! Here is my newest design from my Back to School shop — you can get them with a shiny or matte finish, available in 3 colors. You can find this and the rest of my cases here, or check out the rest that Zazzle has to offer here for iPhone, Samsung, Nexus, iPad and Kindle!

So, my friends – go shop with confidence knowing that your kids will have the good stuff this year. Be sure to check out my Check Mate collection, featuring all of my latest checkered goodies inspired by my little dudes.

Get 30% off right now through Sunday 8/21 using code ZBIGDEALFORU at checkout!

Want to see ALL of the Back to School goodies available on Zazzle? Check them out here:

Happy National Dog Day!! You may or may not know, I am not only mother to two crazy boys, but also to this guy — this big, beautiful and completely blind boy named Jaeger (Jaeger der Wunderhund Von Stickel, to be exact).

I have a huge place in my heart for all things furry, especially big slobbery dogs. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say I am more fond of them than people… which is why I am SO excited to try to do my part to help these guys out.

The Labrador Rescuers of San Diego is an amazing charity that helps foster, rehabilitate and relocate Labrador Retrievers to find their forever home. They are amazing! I’ve teamed up with them to donate a portion of the proceeds from my new collection, Labrador Love, to help support their efforts.

I have all kinds of goodies available that are super cute and will help you show your love for your fur-baby, while also supporting a fantastic cause for our four-legged friends. We all have at least one crazy dog lady friend, there are lots of great gifts for her, too!

Here are a few of my favorite items that are available, but do check out the Entire Collection Here. Be sure to check out the Zazzle Offers page to see if there is a coupon code for one of the items you might be purchasing first!

Lab Lover Tote Bag

Labrador Wine Tote — also available with the full Lab Lover logo.

Labrador Love Acrylic dog food or water bowl!

Lab Lover T-Shirt — available in several styles. Sweatshirts, hoodies, baby and toddler shirts also available!

And many more goodies, like leashes and collars, coffee mugs, blankets, etc., available in the shop — go Check it Out and support Labrador Rescuers today!

The little man recently turned a year old (!!!), so of course, we had to celebrate. Always itching for an opportunity to design and be crafty, I dove in head first and let everything else go while I was in party planning mode. I then remembered that I have a blog and that I should probably blog about it, so I had to remember to take good pictures, too! #bloggerproblems

Since I did actually think ahead this time, almost everything you see in this post is available either for purchase or as a free printable (yay!). You can find a list of products and links to their source at the bottom of this post!I chose a farm theme for Vaughn – his Grandpa is a strawberry farmer, and Vaughn seems to have an affinity for one of his cow toys, so I thought it would be a really cute party and super fun to plan for if we held it at Grandma & Grandpa’s house.

It all started with the invites. I started playing with the cow idea and drew up this cutie. The whole theme unfolded from there with the red font and cow splotches all over the place. 🙂

I loved the tag shaped invite option on Zazzle, so I used that as my canvas, and opted for the natural colored paper instead of white. Much more farm-y, don’t you think?

The back side of the invite has all the details for the party.

When you purchase the invites, they come with plain-jane envelopes. I considered making some cute labels or something, but why go through all that effort when I can design custom envelopes! Right?

They even have cow splotches on the inside. Hello Cuteness!

Once I dropped the invites in the mail I started working on all of the fun for the big day. Utilizing Zazzle’s crazy huge selection of customizable goodies, I started adding the party’s mascot to favor boxes, favor tags, paper plates, and a onesie for the birthday boy!

How cute are these little guys?

I really love the tags, and they come with the twine!

So my next mission was to figure out what to put in these little boxes for the kiddos that were coming to the party. Amazon to the rescue! Farm themed rubber duckies….

…cow tales…

…farm animal STICKERS!

I wanted a banner or bunting with Vaughn’s name on it, and decided to just make my own printable bunting, punch some holes in the triangles and string some twine through.

While I was at it, I made a couple of flags for cake toppers, and some water bottle labels (seriously, I can’t stop once I’m on a roll). All of these are available to print below!

I couldn’t wait for the big day!

This display was inside, and Grandma and Grandpa’s house tends to be pretty dark so it was very hard to take decent pictures. The close-ups are better!

Good old Albertsons did an amazing job yet again with the cake! I used bamboo skewers for the cake topper flags (taped them on). I purchased a package of the red bandanas on Amazon to use for decoration and handed them out to the kids as well.

Vaughn got his own cake to dive into. And he totally did!

The printed water bottle labels – they fit on both the mini and regular size Arrowhead water bottles.

Cake Plates!

I found these milk bottles at Target in the party section, and filled them with jelly bellies (french vanilla and chocolate pudding to be exact).

The favor boxes, all packaged up and ready to go!

The printable name banner with red and white twine. The secondary banner is from Target!

I found this great chalkboard banner at Target too, along with some chalkboard pens (my new favorite). I wrote the letters and used two types of twine to string through the banner and tape on to the highchair. The highchair is very special – it’s an antique my Mom purchased years ago, and every grandchild has spent ample time in it during their baby days. Vaughn is probably the last one. Certainly from me. LOL

Me and the Birthday Boy! Notice his onesie? 🙂

Grandpa’s wagon made a great place to put the presents!

Veggies first, then Cake!

Yep. I think he likes it.

Do you see the remote control in his hand? He wouldn’t put it down… and since it was his birthday, I wasn’t about to take it away from him. Sorry Mom. 🙂